


Night Before the First Night

by miera



Series: Winterfell U [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Gift Giving, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22167832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera
Summary: Brienne and Jaime celebrate a momentous Sevenmas together, the night before it begins. Modern AU where they are both professors at Winterfell University.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: Winterfell U [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1647211
Comments: 29
Kudos: 158





	Night Before the First Night

**Author's Note:**

> I have picked up a lot of different people's ideas of how a modern Christmas like holiday would look in Westeros, I hope I'm not stepping on any toes by borrowing some of the concepts.

Brienne had not been all that enthusiastic about Sevenmas for a long time. After her mother and then her brother died, it was just her and her father, and for years they went through the motions of all the holiday traditions, but it was like the sound had been muted. 

When she started working at Winterfell U she had gone home to Tarth at first, but that stopped a few years ago. Her father's girlfriend – this one is roughly Selwyn's age, to Brienne's relief – has two grown children who are both married and having their own kids, so they generally go visit her grandchildren in the Riverlands now, rather than staying on Tarth. Brienne met them there once and experienced enough awkwardness and anxiety for a lifetime. (Nothing bad had happened, honestly. There were some double takes over her height and size but everyone was polite to her. It just felt fake, the whole thing, plus it was uncomfortable to be the only single person in the house aside from the baby.) 

Since that trip, Brienne has usually spent the First Night with the Starks at their annual party, and then the remaining holiday eating popcorn and binge-watching movies.

Things changed last year, of course, since it was the first Sevenmas she and Jaime were officially together, though they still went to the Starks on the First Night and then spent the remainder of the week in Jaime's apartment. They still ate popcorn and watched movies, but there were also long, lazy mornings in bed and at least one day neither of them ever got properly dressed. It was probably the happiest Sevenmas Brienne had had since she was a child. 

None of that had prepared her for what it would be like to be living with the man during the weeks leading up to the holiday.

Jaime had always gone all in on holidays, she knew that long ago. His office door was always decked out for whatever holiday was next, and his apartment was always even more. They had spent last year at his place because his decorations had made her candle wreath and tiny table-top tree look sad by comparison.

Her first inkling of how things were different now that they were sharing a house had been when he was getting ready for Stranger's Night, which was the first big holiday after they moved into the rented house not far from the Starks. Ghosts and spiders and cut outs of White Walkers had filled the yard and carved pumpkins covered the porch. Every week it seemed like there was more stuff everywhere.

She had, tentatively, asked Jaime about the volume of decorations flooding the place. He'd gotten embarrassed, scratching the back of his neck and swallowing. He immediately offered to take some of it down, saying in a voice that tried to be casual but couldn't quite manage it that his father had always gotten a professional to decorate their family home and never allowed Jaime or his siblings to do anything themselves because it wouldn't look _respectable_. 

Brienne was something of an expert on Lannister family dynamics as well as Jaime's coping methods, but occasionally she still needed a reminder that the privilege of his family's wealth didn't make up for a lot of the misery of his childhood. She decided right then that if he was enjoying buying the farm market out of pumpkins to carve, she wasn't going to object. She just squeezed his hand and made a joke about worrying that now that it was winter the White Walkers could come to life and attack the house. Jaime had grinned, tugging her close and promising to protect her.

She went along with nearly every suggestion he made leading up to Sevenmas, although she had reined him in when they went looking for a tree, insisting they needed to be about to get through the living room without climbing over the couch. She could see the tree, lit up and glowing from the large picture window in the living room.

Brienne parked her car next to Jaime's and sat for a moment in the gloomy winter evening. They were a ways away from days when the sun wouldn't rise at all but nightfall still came early. It showed off the lights, though. Multicolored strands wrapped around the porch and framed the door, where a large evergreen wreath with seven lights hung. Though she couldn't see it from the car, there was a new doormat with a picture of the Great Giant on it as well. Jaime had left no stone unturned in his quest to cover the house with decorations. 

She shut the car off and finished off the ginger tea she had bought while out doing her last-minute shopping for Jaime's gift. Usually she did her holiday shopping online but Jaime had a tendency to rip open all the mail and now that she'd decided, she didn't want to risk him finding out by accident. She'd even swapped the bag from the store out for a generic white plastic one to ensure he wouldn't be able to get any hints. 

_It's going to be fine,_ she told herself for the millionth time. _He's going to be happy, it's going to be okay._

She got out of the car and locked it behind her and walked up to the door, shaking slush off her boots before going inside. Just a few more days until the holiday and her anxiety would – hopefully – be resolved. 

*~*~*~*~*

Jaime suggested they exchange gifts on the night before the First Night of Sevenmas. Tyrion would be arriving in the morning to spend the holiday with them and they were going to the Starks for their annual First Night party, so it would be the last time they had privacy for a few days. 

Jaime had spent the afternoon baking cookies to take to the party, which left the house smelling amazing. Brienne had helped a bit but their kitchen was a bit too small for two people of their size to maneuver. Eventually she drifted into the living room and stretched out on the couch. Jaime had insisted they buy a couch long enough for people of their height to lie down on, which meant the couch stretched across the entire living room. Brienne had argued over the expense but Jaime had dug his heels in and she had to admit he had been right. There was something so comforting about being able to stretch out across the couch all the way. Darkness was approaching though it was mid-afternoon and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

When she woke up the throw blanket from the back of the couch was draped over her and Jaime was sitting on the floor next to her. "Good morning, sleeping princess," he said, grinning.

Brienne rolled her eyes at the fairy tale reference, stretching. She felt too comfortable to bother getting up yet.

Jaime leaned an arm on the couch cushion and rested his chin on it. "Do you know, I don't think I've ever seen you take a nap before? Outside of post-sex naps, of course." How could they have been together for more than a year and the man could still make her blush? His other hand reached out and traced the flush from her cheek down her neck gently. "You sure you're feeling all right? I know you haven't been sleeping well."

Gods, she almost told him right then, but she had a plan, damn it, and she was going to stick to it. "I'm fine. It was a tough term, that's all." She switched tactics. "I would have thought you'd be thrilled to see me being lazy for once." 

He grinned. "Mostly I'm disappointed I didn't get to join you." It was meant to sound salacious but Brienne knew Jaime basically soaked up any opportunity to cuddle like a human sponge, and frankly she was nearly as bad as him. Years of never touching other people had done a bit of a number on both of them. 

Brienne brushed her fingers through his hair, amused when his eyes closed in bliss. "I promise you I will take another nap at some point and invite you." 

"I will hold you to that, wench." 

It was full dark by then and Jaime was too tired from baking to bother with trying to cook, so they heated some leftovers for supper. Once they had washed the dishes they sat down in front of the tree in the living room. Jaime turned out the rest of the lights, so only the candles and the fairy lights on the tree were on.

He sat down across from Brienne and she noted him rubbing his palms against his thighs nervously. "I'd like to go first, if that's okay?"

His tone was more serious than she expected and Brienne felt a knot form in her stomach before she could stop it. She pushed back the immediate, panicked thought that he was about to tell her he realized he didn't love her and didn't want to be with her any more, that things just weren't working out. It was stupid and irrational and completely contradicted by the effort Jaime had gone through for their home for this holiday, but the thought still formed. It was just the echoes of her insecurities, but even after all this time she could never silence them entirely.

She just nodded at Jaime and laced her fingers together to hide any trembling. Jaime reached under the tree and picked up the box he had placed there earlier today. It was about the width of her palm. "Happy Sevenmas, Brienne." 

She tore off the wrapping and found a white cardboard box underneath. She opened it and froze.

Inside the larger white box was a small velvet one. There was no hiding the shaking in her hands as she picked up the small box and opened it to find a ring with a sapphire in the center and tiny diamonds around it. 

She tried to say something but her voice had stopped working. When her eyes met Jaime's he reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist. His hands were shaking too. "Please just let me get this out before you say anything, all right?" She nodded again. 

Jaime took a deep breath. "I love you. I've loved you for a long time, before I even realized it. I didn't think I would ever feel this way about anyone. I had decided it just wasn't for me, and maybe that was a good thing with all the shit my family has done, because how could I ever explain all of that? Who would even want to deal with all of it? But then I met you, and I couldn't scare you away, and I realized I trusted you completely, in a way I didn't think I could trust anyone." He gulped, taking another breath. "I don't deserve you. I'm too old and way too messed up but… you make me want to be better. I might never measure up, but I can promise you I will keep trying, even if the answer is no, but… I'd much rather be at your side, for the rest of our lives. If you'll have me." He winced, like the words hadn't come out exactly how he wanted, but it was too late to take it back. 

She wanted to tell him he was wrong, that he wasn't too old and that she had enough issues of her own but they'd had that argument many times. She wanted to laugh and to cry but his last words, "for the rest of our lives," kept ringing in her head and she still couldn't find her voice.

Jaime tensed as her silence stretched. "We, uh, also don't have to decide anything right now. I want to marry you, I want us to be permanent, but if you need time, we can wait before setting a date, or even just agree to get engaged eventually… if that's what you want?"

_You're scaring him,_ Brienne chastised herself. The thought broke through her paralysis. "Yes. Of course yes." 

He let out a huge sigh of relief. "Really?"

Brienne shook her head and pulled him into a kiss. "Really. I love you so much." 

"I love you." Jaime reached up and brushed his fingers against her face, his jaw dropping open. "Brienne, you're crying." She had cried maybe twice in all the years she'd known him, and both of those times had been in due to extreme stress.

He sounded nervous again, knowing something wasn't right. She knew it was time to explain everything. She reached over and grabbed his gift. "Jaime, here." He looked anxious and confused but she pressed the box into his hand. "Just open it, please." 

He ripped at the wrapping paper and opened the cardboard box she'd found, then lifted out the smaller box inside. It was an ornament box, containing a "Baby's First Sevenmas" ornament.

Ever since the doctor confirmed the pregnancy test, Brienne had struggled to find a way to tell Jaime about the baby, and failed over and over. She finally had the idea to buy the ornament and let it do the talking for her.

Jaime looked from the box to her and back, his expression thunderstruck. His grip on her arm tightened. "Brienne? You… we… a baby? We're having a baby?"

"Yes. Remember the flu bug I got at the beginning of the month? Not the flu."

"I guess that explains the napping," Jaime quipped. And the crying. She could practically see his brain turning as he tried to grasp the news. His eyes met hers and she could see the tears filling them, knew that her own eyes were watering again as well. "We're having a baby?" he asked again, his voice almost reverent.

"If that's what you want? I mean I assume from this-" she waved the ring box back and forth, "that you do?"

"Of course I do!" Jaime lunged and pulled her into his arms, holding on so tightly she could hardly breathe. "I just thought it would be a few years, after we got married and bought a house and had time to think about it, I wouldn't have wanted you to feel rushed…"

He trailed off and she could feel the question hanging in the air. "A little, maybe? But it feels like this was maybe meant to happen?" 

Jaime nodded. Then his face pressed against her neck. His voice was nearly a whisper. "Brienne? You didn't… you didn't say yes just because of the baby?" Her heart clenched in her chest.

She pulled back, making him look at her. "No. I would've said yes no matter what." Some of the tension left him and she attempted to joke. "Though I don't think a long engagement is in the cards now." 

Jaime laughed. "No, I suppose we don't want to scandalize the whole university having a baby out of wedlock." 

He looked down at her lap and his expression changed, and then took the ring box and lifted the ring out. "May I?" 

Brienne offered him her hand and sitting there in the glow of the tree, Jaime slid the engagement ring into place. The fit was a little tight but that could be adjusted. She never wore rings or much jewelry but Brienne found she liked the way the ring looked on her hand. 

Jaime raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them. Brienne pulled him in and they sat there, kissing under the tree and talking well into the night.

*~*~*~*~*

The following Sevenmas, Jaime gave Brienne a second "Baby's First Sevenmas" ornament, insisting each of the twins deserved to have their own.


End file.
